A Trip To The Vet
by OrcaMafia
Summary: "Could you please move a little bit? I need to give Zeus, Baklava, and Mr. Whiskers enough room so they can lick themselves…" Sadiq nearly laughed at how stupid those pet names were. And how stupid that request was. Well, if he wasn't already in such an irritated, frustrated mood, he might have laughed. To say that Sadiq loathes waiting rooms would be an understatement.


**A/N: I'm writing this story because I am the happy owner of three gorgeous betta fish, and because veterinarian's offices are hilarious places IMO. Also, I am not a cat person, but for the sake of this story, I will attempt to write one. :'D!**

Sadiq's PoV

Fish were supposed to be the easiest pets to take care of, right? I mean—They don't bite, they're not loud, they can't (physically) run away from their owners—They don't even have to be potty trained, for Allah's sake! All they do is swim around, minding their own business, only requiring a teeny, tiny fish pellet once a day. After houseplants, fish were probably the most effortless thing on the planet to care for. Only some sort of dumbass wouldn't be able to properly care for such an easy pet.

That's why, when Sadiq Adnan's soft-spoken suitemate, Kiku Honda, announced that he would be leaving for a month to visit his parents in Japan and needed someone to take care of Haru the blue betta fish, Sadiq agreed to play fish-sitter without hesitation. _I mean, it's a fish. They practically take care of themselves,_ he thought the day Kiku left for his flight to Japan.

The Japanese boy had graciously offered to write Sadiq a list of detailed instructions on how to care for Haru while he was away, but Sadiq waved him off, gruffly saying "Eh, don't worry about it, kid. It's only a fish, not a cat or something obnoxious like that. He'll be fine while you're away. Have a good time, say hi to yer parents for me!" Kiku responded with a smile and gentle nod.

He then leaned close to Haru's tank, waving the little fish a quick goodbye. Turning to Sadiq again, he said "You're right. I know I can trust you, Sadiq. I'm just being a bit overly-cautious. My friends and I won Haru last year from one of the carnival games during the spring festival, when I was still living in Japan—He just reminds me of the good memories I had with my old schoolmates, so I've gotten very attached to him. But I know he'll be fine with you." Sadiq rolled his eyes, but grinned. "Yeah, yeah, don't worry 'bout Haru." he said, reassuring the smaller boy as he lightly punched him on the shoulder.

"Well—Arigatou. I will see you in a month. Please have a relaxing time while I'm away!" Kiku bowed quickly and left their shared apartment to catch the taxi waiting for him that would take him to the airport. "Görüşürüz!" Sadiq called from inside the apartment in his native language, casual but warmly as Kiku departed.

A few moments after his suitemate left, Sadiq walked over to Haru's tank, bending down so he was eye-level to Kiku's beloved pet. He was a shimmery blue-teal color and his dorsal fin was long, trailing elegantly behind him as he swam around, inspecting the fake plastic bamboo plants that Kiku had decorated his tank with. Sadiq opened the top lid of his tank and grabbed the small bottle of betta pellets sitting next to it. He tossed one of the small bits of food into the tank, watching Haru dart up to the surface of the water to quickly gobble it before it sank to the gravel below. Sadiq shrugged, closing the tank lid and screwing back on the top of the betta food container. _Easy_ , he thought. Kiku might as well have left him a houseplant to take care of.

Fast forward two weeks, and Sadiq was berating himself for not taking Kiku up on his offer to leave him a detailed list of betta-care instructions.

Sadiq had been doing everything he could—He swore—to care for Haru. Given, "everything he could" basically just meant feeding it once a day and changing its water once a week. And yet here Haru was, fins clamped, having done nothing for the past five days but lie at the bottom of his tank, uninterested in food and unresponsive to all of his surroundings. Even when Sadiq put his hand (washed, ofcourse) inside and wiggled his finger by the little fish, Haru just lethargically moved out of the way and continued sitting on the gravel bottom.

 _What kind of damn idiot can't even properly care for a stupid fish,_ Sadiq thought, berating himself for having failed such an _easy_ task. He was currently sitting on the couch, next to Haru's tank, running his hands through his hair. This was so dumb. Sadiq wasn't particularly worried about the fish's wellbeing, moreso, he was worried about how Kiku would react if he found his beloved pet dead upon return.

 _Didn't that stupid fish mean something sentimental to him? He bought him in Japan during some holiday—Something like that—I can't let it die for Kiku's sake,_ Sadiq groaned. He turned his head and glared at Haru, as if it was the fish's fault for being sick. "You'd better not die on me" he grunted.

And that brings us to now.

Here he is, sitting in the veterinarian's waiting room with several other patients—Er, owners of patients, I mean.

This was the last place Sadiq Adnan wanted to be on a sunny Saturday afternoon. What a good, caring roommate he was, sitting here in a waiting room filled with loud barking and meowing and chirping, holding a small bowl in his hands with a sick fish inside, looking like some dumbass.

Everyone in the whole waiting room looked like those deranged people from one of those Animal Hoarders shows on Animal Planet, if Sadiq had to be completely honest. Save for himself, everyone else in the veterinarian's waiting room was a nervous wreck, talking to their pets as if they were people.

"It's going to be okay, fluffy! I know your doggy-woggy cold is hurting your wittle nosey-wosey, but Mr. Vet is going to make you all better! Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy? Yes, you are, yes you are, mommy loves you—" Sadiq groaned quite loudly as he glared at some old lady talking to a very fluffy poodle a few seats behind him.

To his left, some little kid was sitting beside him with a birdcage in his lap, nearly bawling his eyes out. Inside the cage was a tired looking bird, several of its feathers missing. "I-Is Flappy g-g-going to d-die?" He blubbered through choked sobs. Two folks standing by him, Sadiq assumed they were his parents, gave each other exhausted looks, and attempted to comfort the child.

Sadiq stared into his own little bowl, with its sickly betta lying inside. "I can't believe you're making me suffer like this," he muttered towards the fish, cursing his situation. _Oh for Allah's sake, now I'm talking to it as if I'm one of them_.

And then, just when the child sobbing next to him couldn't have gotten more obnoxious and just as the old woman sweet-talking her poodle couldn't have gotten more exasperating to listen to, Sadiq's attention was directed to a new voice to his right.

"Could you please move a little bit? I need to give Zeus, Baklava, and Mr. Whiskers enough room so they can lick themselves…"

Sadiq nearly laughed at how _stupid_ those pet names were. And how _stupid_ that request was. Well, he would if he wasn't already in such an annoyed, frustrated mood, he might have laughed. Instead he just glowered at the presence before him.

He glanced up to see a boy around his age, maybe a bit younger, with green eyes, a tanned olive complexion only slightly lighter than his own, and quite tousled hair looking at him with a rather relaxed expression. Beyond his appearance, what Sadiq was more focussed on was the fact that he was currently holding three cats, two in each arm and another was perched on his shoulder, pawing his shirt from behind. _Damn, everyone here is so messed up,_ he thought. Especially with those cat names. Greek gods, greek food and—Mr. Whiskers? Sadiq _never_ could understand cat people.

"No." Sadiq said flatly.

The boy stared at him for some time with a rather blank expression on his face. Sadiq stared back, glaring. And then the insane (in Sadiq's humble opinion) cat owner proceeded to move Sadiq's bag from the (relatively) clean seat which he had placed it on to the dirty, dander-littered floor. Then, the stupid brat sat next to him _anyway_ , making ample room so his _stupid stinking cats_ could stretch out and—Sadiq grimaced to himself— _lick themselves_.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Sadiq growled as the boy proceeded to take up two seats for himself and his cats.

Two of the kittens, one gray and the other white with orange splotches, curled up next eachother, sharing one seat together. The cute image before him would have made most people clutch their hearts and " _aw_ ", but, well, Sadiq really wasn't a cat person. _Really_ wasn't a cat person.

The remaining golden cat plopped happily on the brat's lap, both the pet owner and one of his three kitties now occupying the seat to Sadiq's right. AKA where is bag had formerly been placed, before this cat-loving-asshole rudely tossed it to the ground to make room for himself and his felines.

It began purring and rubbing its paws against the armrest which separated the two men. Sadiq glared and it and sneezed.

"You… Shouldn't expect to occupy a vet's waiting room and not have to make accommodations for other people's pets." The boy responded, not bothering to look at Sadiq. His mouth pulled into a tight frown and he stroked the gold-coated cat on his lap. "Isn't that right, baklava?" The cat seemed to meow in agreement, leaning into his owners' touch.

Sadiq nearly did a double take. _Was this brat for real?_

He snarled, "Look, kid, you had better get these things off my armrest and away from me." He rubbed his nose, sniffling a bit in reaction to the dander and fur which was currently being spread everywhere. Damn cats.

Instead of giving Sadiq the mere respect of responding to his angry outburst, the cat-loving-asshole (as Sadiq had long since dubbed him in his mind) stared into Sadiq's lap, looking over the fish bowl and sickly betta that occupying it.

"He's pretty. Such a nice fish, especially for such a rude owner… Does he have a name?"

If Sadiq were drinking anything at the moment, he surely would have choked on it with how every single damn thing that came out of this kid's mouth was increasingly more and more insolent, flippant, downright obnoxious. Sadiq twitched. Truth be told, he low-key wanted to strangle the boy—But that would disrupt Haru the betta, who was currently sitting in his bowl in his lap.

"His name is _shut-the-hell-up-and-mind-your-own-business-and-move-your-damn-things-off-my-chair_."

 **To be continued-!**


End file.
